An Imperfect Librarian - Elizabeth Murphy [52]
She’s rummaging in the porch looking for something. “Either that or you need to go away and deal with your problem.”
“I’ve heard that one before.”
“Maybe it’s time you listened to their advice,” she says.
“Not when it comes from someone I don’t trust.”
She opens the door partway. “Trust has a self-fulfilling character about it.”
“Exactly.”
“I have to feed the horses, bring the dogs to the vet for shots, et cetera, et cetera. I have my hands full with more than I can cope with, and, to be honest, since I know that’s something you demand of me, I don’t have time for a relationship where trust is an issue.”
She pulls the door sharply to a close, like an exclamation mark jabbed onto the page with the fine point of a pencil.
CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO
quotation marks
I’D BEEN WISHING FOR A hostile Saturday with raging winds, rain on the verge of a breakdown, the kind of day when people are warned to go out only for emergencies. Instead, the temperature and the colour of the sky are record-breaking. It’s ideal weather for rowing on the pond or visiting a cove. Everyone is looking for an excuse to be outdoors and what better excuse than the People for Privacy rally? I arrive just as it’s ending.
Francis works the crowd with the charm and conviction of a politician. “Personal freedoms have to be safeguarded!” he shouts.
I wear a baseball hat, sunglasses and Cyril’s old fly-fishing vest over a t-shirt to blend into the crowd. I sit on a bench near the side of the field so my height doesn’t give me away.
“Monitoring of cellphone use, financial surveillance, insurance companies checking on health information: Our rights and freedoms are threatened every day.”
The Frisbee and ball traffic frighten away the birds. The squeaking sounds of swings and the shouts of children playing interfere like static with his speech.
“The next time someone is entering your information into the computer, ask questions: Who sees your personal information? Is it cross-linked or connected electronically with other information? How will it be used? What are you going to do about it? Protect your information!” He points a finger at the crowd of no more than twenty-five or thirty.
They applaud and chant as they walk away. “Pri-va-cy! Pri-va-cy! Pri-va-cy!”
Someone reaches from behind and cups hands over my sunglasses. “Aren’t you a sight with that get-up,” Edith says. “Halloween’s not for another month.” She makes herself comfortable on the bench next to me.
“What did you think of the rally?”
“I think it’s a good idea you’re disguised,” she says. “You should wear those glasses more often. Although, I love your brown eyes.” She takes the baseball hat that Cyril lent me and puts it on her head. A gust of wind blows it onto the field. She chases after it. She’s out of breath when she hands it back to me.
“What about our friend Francis?” I ask.
“Francis has two friends in the world and I’m not one of them,” she says.
“I’m surprised he has that many.”
This time, she borrows my glasses. “The Chief is one and the other is you-know-who.”
“No idea.”
She turns her head side to side checking the view through the glasses. “Norah Myrick is his...” She pauses then imitates quotation marks with her fingers. “Friend.” She waves to someone. “Be right back.” She hands me my glasses then runs over to a woman. They hug and talk.
I stretch my arms over the back of the bench and cross my legs while I wait. Halfway across the field, Francis is stuffing his loudspeaker into a bag. He throws it over his shoulder and walks away with a woman on either side. My arms start to feel stiff so I stand up from the bench. I walk towards the hotdog stand. One of the members of the privacy group goes by. I turn the other way then go back to the bench. The woman Edith is talking to walks away.
“Sorry about that,” Edith says to me. She takes her sweater off the park bench and lays it over her shoulder before she sits. “It’s cooling down, isn’t it?”
“What did you mean by friend?”
“Right after her father died, she threatened to sue the library if we didn’t give